Equals Group PLC Acquisition of HermexFX (4824I)
August 09 2019 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMEQLS
RNS Number : 4824I
Equals Group PLC
09 August 2019
9 August 2019
Equals Group plc
("Equals" or "the Group" or "the Company")
Acquisition of trade and assets of HermexFX and subscription for
shares in Equals Group Plc
and
Issue of Equity on exercise of Options
Equals Group PLC, the e-banking and international payments
group, is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, FairFX plc, has
acquired the International Payments business of Hermex
International Limited ("HermexFX"), part of the FXPro Group, for a
total consideration of GBP2 million, payable in cash on completion
(the "Acquisition").
HermexFX offers international payment services to a
predominantly corporate client base through a personalised service
offering. The Acquisition will complement the Group's strategy to
develop its fast-growing corporate segment, providing additional
corporate clients and cross-selling opportunities for the expanding
range of products through their existing sales channels. The
Group's technology, combined with its expertise in compliance,
operations and settlements, means the integration of the HermexFX
business into the Group can be achieved efficiently.
The Acquisition is made in accordance with the Group's strategy
to consolidate smaller, attractive market participants. It is
expected to be immediately earnings enhancing. In addition, the
Acquisition fits with one of Equals' stated core strategies of
extracting value from increasing economies of scale.
Concurrently with the Acquisition, Kyrillos Kyriacou, the
current CEO and founder of HermexFX, has joined the Equals Group as
an employee and has agreed to subscribe GBP1 million, for 851,063
new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company ("Subscription
Shares") at an issue price of GBP 1.175 per share. The Subscription
Shares are subject to a two year lock-in period followed by an
orderly market provision.
Furthermore, the Company announces an issue of equity pursuant
to a recent exercise of employee share options over 33,333 new
ordinary shares of 1p each ("Option Shares").
The Company has applied for the Subscription Shares and Option
Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is
expected that Admission will take place at 8.00 a.m. on 14 August
2019. Following Admission, the Company will have 165,202,079
ordinary shares of 1p each in issue admitted to trading on AIM.
This figure, 165,202,079, may be used by Shareholders as the
denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if
they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their
interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's
Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
For the 12 months to 30 June 2019, the subject of the
Acquisition generated revenue of GBP1.8 million and would have
contributed GBP0.6 million to PBT. As at 30 June 2019, the subject
of the Acquisition had gross assets of GBP0.2million (excluding the
fair value of intangible assets and goodwill).
Ian Strafford-Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This
acquisition further demonstrates the ambition of the Group to be a
dominant force in the payments market. Utilising our proprietary
technology and outstanding operations teams we are able to absorb
businesses like HermexFX extremely efficiently. The acquisition
also shows our commitment to pursuing our strategy of achieving
cost efficiencies through scale. We are delighted to have attracted
such a high quality, service-led business with an excellent client
base, and we welcome the team from HermexFX to the Equals
family."
For more information, please contact:
Equals Group plc +44 (0) 20 7778
Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO 9308
Cenkos Securities plc - Nominated
Advisor and Joint Broker
Max Hartley (Nomad)
Callum Davidson +44 (0) 20 7397
Nick Searle - Sales 8900
Canaccord Genuity Limited - Joint
Broker
Bobbie Hilliam
David Tyrrell +44 (0) 20 7523
Alex Aylen - Sales 8150
+44 (0) 7747 788
Yellow Jersey 221
+44 (0) 7796 325
Charles Goodwin 254
Joe Burgess +44 (0) 7983 557
Annabel Atkins 851
About Equals
Equals is a leading challenger brand in banking and payments
that disintermediates the incumbent banks with a superior user
experience and low-cost operating model. Our business enables
personal and business customers to make easy, low-cost payments
both domestically and in a broad range of currencies and across a
range of products all via one integrated system. The Equals
platform facilitates payments either direct to Bank Accounts or at
35 million merchants and over 1 million ATM's in a broad range of
countries globally via Mobile apps, the Internet, SMS, wire
transfer and MasterCard/VISA debit cards.
Equals provides money movement services to both personal and
business customers through four channels: Currency Cards, Physical
Currency, International Payments and Bank Accounts. The Currency
Card and Physical Currency offerings facilitate multiple overseas
payments at points of sale and ATM's whereas the International
Payments channel supports wire transfer foreign exchange
transactions direct to Bank Accounts. For Corporates, Equals has a
market-leading business-expenses solution based around its
corporate platform and prepaid card. This service can yield
significant savings on a Corporate's expenses and procurement both
domestically and overseas, through better controls and improved
transparency. The platform also streamlines the downstream
administrative processes and integrates into accounting software,
thus saving costs. Equals offers retail and business bank accounts
with all the functionality you would expect from a bank, namely
faster payments, BACs, direct debits, international payments and a
debit card.
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END
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